How to Write an Abstract for a Research Paper

An abstract
summarizes the major features of a research paper in a given order. It includes
the overall idea behind the research, the basic study design, important
findings of your analysis, a short summary of your analysis, and conclusions.
The abstract allows a writer to explain each feature of the paper and makes the
paper valuable for the readers who want to study your work.

Kinds of Abstract

A simple rule
to know whether the abstract is good is to check if it provides sufficient
information about your research. Here are the different kinds of abstracts that
you can incorporate into your paper:

·        
Descriptive Abstract

A descriptive
abstract specifies the kind of information that the paper provides. It
incorporates keywords that occur in the text and includes the objective, scope,
and methodologies used in the research. It doesn’t offer any opinion or
conclusions about the research. The descriptive abstract only summarizes the
work described in the paper so it is often considered as an outline of the research.
These abstracts are typically very short, around 100 words or less.

·        
Informative Abstract

The informative
abstracts provide a detailed explanation of all the arguments, evidence, and
the results in the paper. While an informative abstract doesn’t criticize or
evaluate the research, it includes information about the purpose, scope, and
methodologies along with the results, recommendations, and conclusion of the
research. The length of the informative abstract can vary depending on your
discipline, but it is usually not more than 300 words.

·        
Critical Abstract

A critical
abstract describes key information and findings in addition to offering an
opinion about the authenticity and reliability of the research. The researcher
assesses the paper and draws a comparison with other research work on the same
topic. Critical abstracts are usually long, 400 -500 words, and are used rarely
in A+ essay writing.

·        
Highlight Abstract

A highlight
abstract serves to captures reader’s interest towards the research. Instead of
providing the overall picture, incomplete remarks and hints are used to catch
reader’s attention. Since a highlight abstract is meaningless without its
related article, it is seldom used in research writing.

Writing an
abstract

A concise and
clear abstract provides an insight into researcher’s work and encourages the
readers to read further. Here are some rules to follow when writing an abstract
for a research paper:

1.   Try to use active voice as much as possible, but occasionally you
may be required to use a passive sentence.

2.     
Use short but complete sentences to quickly get to the point.

3.  Always write in the past tense as you are describing a
research that has already been completed.

4.  Write the abstract in the end as it will help you summarize all
the contents of the paper. Compose your abstract by picking sentences or
main phrases from every section and organizing them in a logical order that
sums up the paper.

5.     
Review or add words or phrases to make the abstract logical and
clear to the readers.

6.     Ensure that the information provided in the abstract entirely
agrees with the contents of the  paper.

7.   Avoid extensive background information in the abstract. Do not
include references to past research such as ‘studies indicate that...’

8.     Avoid incomplete sentences, abbreviations, or jargons that may
confuse the readers.

9.     Do not include any image,
table, or figure in the abstract.

A clear
abstract lays the foundation of good essay writing. Arab essay can help
students and professionals to create solid abstracts for their research papers.
Follow abstract writing rules and consult our experts to write quality papers
for your academic research.

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